Roads in Ireland

Planned National Roads Network for 2015

Ireland, both north and south of the border, has an extensive network of roads. Northern Ireland has had motorways since 1962 and well developed primary routes. With the advent of the Celtic Tiger and European Union funding, most national roads in the Republic continue to be upgraded. In the 1990s the Republic went from having only a few short stretches of motorway in the country, to partly expanding the motorways on most major routes. This is part of a National Development Plan. Road construction in Northern Ireland (where the road infrastructure was traditionally of a far higher standard than the Republic) has proceeded at a slower pace in recent years (To the extent that some even claim that it has now been overtaken by the Republic), although a number of important bypasses and upgrades to dual carriageway have recently been completed or are about to begin.

A directional road sign in the Republic of Ireland
County Laois, including patches for national roads and advance warning of bridge height restrictions.

Signposts in Northern Ireland denote distances in miles, while all signposts placed in the Republic since the 1970s use kilometres. Currently miles per hour speed limits are used north of the border. Those in the Republic use kilometres per hour (km/h) introduced on January 20 2005 . This involved the provision of 58,000 new metric speed limit signs, replacing 35,000 imperial signs. The Republic's road signs are bilingual, using both of the state's official languages, Irish and English.

Roads in the Republic of Ireland

The Republic's major road network is focused on Dublin, and motorways are currently being extended to other major cities as part of the Transport 21 programme which aims to have a world class motorway network in place by the end of 2010. By then Ireland's main cities (Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Belfast) will all be connected to Dublin with motorways or with near-motorway standard roads. Dublin has been the focus of some other major projects, such as the East-Link and West-Link toll-bridges, as well as the Dublin Port Tunnel. Other cities and towns have by-pass projects, most of which are under construction as of 2007. The Jack Lynch Tunnel under the River Lee in Cork was a major project outside Dublin, and a fourth crossing at Limerick under the River Shannon (known as the Limerick Tunnel) commenced construction in 2006.

Major roads are either known as motorways or national roads. There are two classes of national roads:

• National Primary Routes are currently numbered from 1 to 33 and 50 (route numbers 34-49 are not currently allocated).
• National Secondary Routes are currently numbered from 51 to 87 (however, the N57 was reclassified as the N26, the N64 was reclassified as a section of the N18 and the N79 was reclassified as the N30).

Non-motorway sections of national routes are sign-posted with the N prefix, motorway sections are signed with the M prefix.

Motorways

In the Republic of Ireland, the highest category of road is a motorway, indicated by the prefix M followed by one or two digits. The motorway network is focused on Dublin. The first motorway section in the state was the M7 Naas by-pass, which opened in 1983. As of 2008, all motorways in Ireland are part of, or form, national primary roads. At the end of 2004 there were Template:Km to mi of motorway in the Republic and Template:Km to mi of dual-carriageway . This was extended, by the end of 2005, to Template:Km to mi of motorway and Template:Km to mi of dual-carriageway . As of Jan 2006 Template:Km to mi of new motorway is currently under construction along with Template:Km to mi of new dual-carriageway. In addition, Template:Km to mi of dual-carriageway has been reconstructed, specifically Template:Km to mi between Naas and Dublin (see thumbnail) and 2.4 km on the Cork Southern Ring road . Most of the new dual carriageways being built in Ireland are built to motorway standards with full grade separation and controlled access, however to avoid the lengthy statutory motorway planning process and in instances where no alternative non-motorway route is available the motorway designation [M] is not used.

In June 2007, it was announced that around 800 kilometres of 'new' motorway will be created; however, this will result from the re-classification of most of the country's high quality dual carriageways to motorway standard. This will affect most of the major inter-urban routes and some of the Atlantic Corridor along the West coast . In December 2007, it was announced that a planned high quality dual carriageway scheme between Galway and Tuam would be built as a motorway, the first such new motorway project to be announced since the early 2000s .

Another new motorway, the M20, is being planned as the main route between Cork and Limerick.

Route number inheritance

In the Republic of Ireland, motorways use the route number of the national road they form part (or possibly in the future, all) of, albeit with the M prefix rather than N. In most cases, the motorway has been built as a by-pass of a road previously forming the national road (e.g. M7 by-passing roads previously forming the N7) - the by-passed roads are reclassified as regional roads, although updated signposting may not be provided for some time, and adherence to signage colour conventions is lax. Regional roads have black-on-white directional signage, national roads use white-on-green (with the route numbers in amber). Motorways in the Republic of Ireland have white-on-blue signage (see thumbnail). Destinations reached by other classes of routes should be listed on a correctly coloured "patch", except on motorways, where all signs should be blue.

Motorway sign in Ireland

The M50, an entirely new (construction began in 1989) national road, is an exception to the normal inheritance process as it does not replace a road previously carrying an "N" number. The M50 was nevertheless legislated as the "N50" route (despite having no non-motorway sections, other than a very short section at Tallaght that has been subsequently subsumed) to record this national road number in the statute books. It was thereafter designated M50 due to the route being entirely motorway standard. The route also breaks the sequential numbering scheme, but 50 was deemed an easily recognisable number. It is referred to by the NRA in its "National Route Lengths 31/12/2004" publication as the N50, as the publication does not distinguish motorways from national primary roads. Instead it classifies motorways where present as the national primary road under an N designation, for example its states there is 14.21 km of the N1 in County Meath while also stating there is 14.21 km of motorway in Meath. The NRA have designated the M1, which indeed is 14.21 km in length in County Meath, as the N1 in the document (the road which was previously part of the N1 through Meath is only approximately 8.5 km long). As of 2008, N34 is the next unused national primary road designation.

An interesting anomaly occurred on the 31st May 2004 in Limerick when the N7 Parkway scheme and the N7 Limerick Southern Ring Road which is parallel to and bypasses the N7 Parkway were opened simultaneously by the Minister of Transport. The N7 Parkway scheme was labeled as such to get National road funding and within minutes of opening was immediately redesignated a regional road, so as the Minister could open the N7 Limerick Southern Ring Road. NRA

List of motorways in the Republic of Ireland

Motorways not yet open are in italics. Destinations not directly served by the national road in question are in brackets.

Route:	Motorway section:	Destinations:
M1	Outskirts of north Dublin City to north of Dundalk.	Dublin–Border (Belfast)/(Derry)
M3	Clonee to north of Kells (under construction).	Dublin–Cavan––Ballyshannon
M4	Lucan to Kinnegad.	Dublin–Sligo
M6	Kinnegad - Athlone (motorway restrictions apply from September 28, 2008). (under construction: Galway-Athlone).	(Dublin)–Galway
M7	Northeast of Naas to west of Portlaoise. (under construction: Portlaoise - Limerick).	Dublin–Limerick/(Cork)/ (Tralee)/ (Waterford)
M8	Rathcormac - Fermoy and Cashel - Mitchelstown. (under construction: Portlaoise - Cashel and Mitchelstown - Fermoy).	(Dublin)–Cork
M9	West of Newbridge to south of Kilcullen (spur off M7) and Carlow bypass. (Remainder under construction).	(Dublin)–Waterford
M11	Bray/Shankill bypass.	Dublin–Wexford
M17	Galway to Tuam (in planning). [1]	Galway–Sligo
M20	Cork to Limerick (in planning). [2]	Cork–Limerick
M25	Waterford by-pass (under construction). [3]	Cork–Rosslare
M50	Entire route.	Dublin ring road

High Quality Dual Carriageways with Motorway Speed Limits in the Republic of Ireland

A number of local authorities have passed special speed limit bye-laws permitting dual carriageways in their administrative area to carry motorway speed limits of 120 km/h.

Route:	Section:	Counties:		Destinations:		Officially Introduced:
N1	North of Dundalk to Northern Ireland border.	Louth		(Dublin) – Border (Belfast)		August 15th, 2007
N2	Junction 5, M50, to North of Ashbourne.	Fingal, Meath		Dublin – Border (Derry)		June 15th, 2006

Dual Carriageways to be redesignated as Motorways under the Roads Act 2007

The Roads Act 2007 was passed into law in the Summer of 2007. This Act makes provision for the redesignation of suitable dual carriageways to motorway status. The National Roads Authority made formal applications under Section 8 of the Act to the Minister for Transport on 16 October 2007 regarding dual carriageways which the authority believed to be suitable for redesignation as motorways. On 29 January 2008, the Department of Transport published notice of the Minister's intention to make the orders being sought and invited submissions or observations to be made to the Minister regarding the NRA's applications. The initial applications proposed the following roads be redesignated as motorways:

Route:	Proposed motorway section:	Destinations:
N6 road	Kinnegad (M6 J2) - Athlone [4]	(Dublin)–Galway
N7 road	South of Borris-in-Ossery to Annacotty [5]	Dublin–Limerick
N8 road	Urlingford - Fermoy [6]	(Dublin)–Cork
N9 road	Kilcullen - Waterford (junction with proposed N25 road) [7]	(Dublin)–Waterford

The consultation procession lasted until 28 March 2008. On 17 July 2008 the statutory instrument redesignating the roads as motorways was signed, and any open parts of these roads will become motorways officially on 24 September 2008 [8] . In the meantime, both the Carlow bypass and Kilbeggan-Athlone HQDCs have opened with motorway signage but with temporary 100 km/h general speed limits.

National primary roads

Main article: National primary road

This category of road has the prefix "N" followed by one or two digits. The most important routes are numbered N1-N11 ( radiate anti-clockwise from Dublin), with those in the range N12-N33 being cross-country roads. National secondary roads (see next section) are numbered under the same scheme with higher numbers. On road signage, destinations served but not on the route in question are listed in brackets, with the connecting route also listed (see thumbnail).

Northern Ireland route sections (which are classified separately according to NI schemes) are in some cases included in a theoretical complete cross-border route – for example the N3 route, which re-enters the Republic. These are listed here in brackets for completeness (and are present on southern road signage).

Naas Road (N7), non-motorway high-grade dual carriageway

This list ignores the sections of route reclassified as motorway (see previous section).

N1 Dublin - Border (North of Dundalk) - (A1 Newry - Belfast)

N2 Dublin - Monaghan - (A5 Omagh - Derry)

N3 Dublin - Cavan - Ballyshannon

N4 Dublin - Sligo

N5 (N4 from Dublin) - Longford - Castlebar with planned extension to Westport

N6 (N4 from Dublin) - Kinnegad - Galway

N7 Dublin - Limerick

N8 (N7 from Dublin) - Portlaoise - Cork

N9 (N7 from Dublin) - Kilcullen - Carlow - Waterford

N10 (N9 from Dublin) - Paulstown - Kilkenny - Ballyhale - (N9 to Waterford)

N11 Dublin - Wexford

N12 Monaghan - (A3 to Belfast)

N13 (N15 from Sligo) - Stranorlar - Letterkenny - (A2 to Derry, A6, M22, M2 to Belfast)

N14 Letterkenny - Lifford - (A5 to Strabane)

N15 Sligo - Donegal - Lifford - (B72, A5 to Derry)

N16 Sligo - (A4 to Enniskillen, A4, M1 to Belfast)

N17 Galway - Claremorris - Collooney - (N4 to Sligo)

N18 (N4, N17 from Sligo) - Claregalway - (N6 from Galway) Oranmore - Ennis - Limerick

N19 (N18 from Limerick/Ennis) - Shannon Town - Shannon Airport

Non-motorway National Route sign in Ireland

N20 Limerick - Cork

N21 Limerick - Castleisland - Tralee

N22 Cork - Killarney - Farranfore - Tralee

N23 (N21 from Limerick) - Castleisland - Farranfore - (N22 to Killarney)

N24 Limerick - Waterford

N25 Cork - Waterford - Rosslare Europort

N26 (N4, N5 from Dublin) - Swinford - Ballina

N27 Cork city centre - Cork Airport

N28 Cork - Ringaskiddy

N29 (Spur off N25 east of Waterford to Belview Port)

N30 (N25 from Cork, Waterford near New Ross) - Enniscorthy - (N11 to Dublin)

N31 (Spur off N11 at Dublin to Dún Laoghaire)

N32 (Continuation of M50 to Malahide Road)

N33 (Spur off M1 to Ardee)

(N50) Dublin ring-road. Only exists as the M50, but route set out in legislation as a primary (N) route. [9]

National secondary roads

Main article: National secondary road

Local Road route marker at its junction with R752 near Rathnew, Co Wicklow

A directional sign with Local Road number indicated

National secondary roads are also indicated with a "N" prefix. Routes N51 and higher (currently to N87) are national secondary routes. Typically these roads are of a similar standard or higher than regional roads. Many of them have been resurfaced with higher quality pavements in recent years with relatively smooth surfaces and good road markings and signposting. However, road widths and alignments are often inadequate, with many narrow and winding sections. Some of these routes are of lower quality than the better regional roads, due to the localised funding for regional roads.

National secondary routes generally do not bypass towns on their routes although the N52 bypasses Mullingar (with a further N52 bypass of Tullamore planned), the N55 (along with the N3) bypasses Cavan, the N61 and the N63 bypass Roscommon, the N71 bypasses Halfway and Skibbereen and the N80 bypasses Carlow.

Examples of national secondary roads are:

N52 Dundalk via Mullingar and Birr to Nenagh joining M7 to Limerick

N59 Galway - Clifden - Westport

N62 Athlone - Horse and Jockey

N74 Cashel - Golden - Tipperary Town

N81 Dublin - Tullow

N86 Tralee - Dingle via Lispole

Regional roads

Main article: Regional road

While funding for national primary roads is administered centrally by the National Roads Authority (NRA), regional and local roads are less well funded (although funding has increased in the 2000s). Local councils are responsible for these roads, as opposed to the NRA.

Regional roads are numbered with an "R" prefix and a three-digit number, ranging from R1xx in the north-east to R7xx in the south-east of the country, with newer regional roads numbered R8xx and R9xx. Some of the more important regional roads such as the R136 Outer Orbital, Dublin and the R710 Waterford Outer Ring Road are dual-carriageway in whole or part. Most regional roads are however single carriageway roads, and many are rather narrow country roads.

Other roads

Other roads (Local Roads) are not generally referred to by number, but are registered with a four- or five-digit "L" number, taking the form Lxxxx. It is rare to see these numbers on signposts or Ordnance Survey maps, although as of 2006 the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government have begun a programme of new signage for regional roads that will incorporate local road numbers on directional signage (see thumbnails). .

Old system

Old style Fingerpost with old Link Road number on it

Confusingly some old road signs will still carry the previous (now obsolete) classifications, "T" for trunk road, or "L" for link road. Trunk roads were broadly equivalent to the present national roads, and link roads to the present regional roads. However there were some differences. Most notably, the present N5 was not designated as one of the major arteries under the trunk/link system.

Former major trunk routes:

T1 = present N1 road

T2 = present N2 road

T3 = present N4 road

T4 = present N6 road

T5 = present N7 road

T6 = Dublin - Cork (including parts of present N9 road and N8 road)

T7 = Dublin - Waterford (including most of present N11 road)

T35 = present N3 road

Unlike the present system, where each road (whether N- or R-) has a unique number, under the trunk/link system, the L-roads were numbered separately beginning with L1. These L classifications are not related to the current Lxxxx numbers for minor roads.

Roads in Northern Ireland

The main roads in Northern Ireland, which connect well with those in the south, are classified "M"/"A"/"B" as in Great Britain. Whereas the roads in Great Britain are numbered according to a zonal system, there is no available explanation for the allocation of road numbers in Northern Ireland, though their numbering is separate from the system in England, Scotland and Wales.

Motorways

See also: List of motorways in the United Kingdom

The most important roads are motorways, designated as in the Republic and Great Britain by the letter "M". The motorway network is focused on Belfast. Legal authority for motorways existed in the Special Roads Act (Northern Ireland) 1963 similar to that in the Special Roads Act 1949 in the United Kingdom. The first motorway to open was the M1 motorway, though did so under temporary powers until the Special Roads Act had been passed. Work on the motorways continued until the 1970s when the oil crisis and The Troubles both intervened causing the abandonment of many schemes. The final scheme to open has been the M3.

"A" roads

See also: List of A roads in Northern Ireland

The next most important roads are designated with the prefix "A" and a one-, two- or three-digit number.

"B" roads

See also: List of B roads in Northern Ireland

Less important roads are indicated with the prefix "B" and a one-, two- or three- digit number.

"C" roads

Minor roads can be indicated with the prefix "C" and a one-, two- or three- digit number, though it is very rare to see these marked on signposts or Ordnance Survey maps

Euro Routes

The following Euro Routes include sections in Ireland:

• E01 - Larne - Belfast - Dublin - Rosslare - A Coruña - Pontevedra - Valença do Minho - Vila Real de Santo António - Huelva - Sevilla
• E16 - Derry - Belfast ... Glasgow - Edinburgh ... Bergen - Arna - Voss ... Lærdal - Tyin - Fagernes - Hønefoss - Sandvika - Oslo
• E18 - Craigavon - Belfast - Larne ... Stranraer - Gretna - Carlisle - Newcastle ... Kristiansand - Arendal - Porsgrunn - Larvik - Sandefjord - Horten - Drammen - Oslo - Askim - Karlstad - Örebro - Västerås - Stockholm/Kapellskär ... Mariehamn ... Turku/Naantali - Helsinki - Kotka - Vaalimaa - Vyborg - Saint Petersburg
• E20 - Shannon - Limerick - Dublin ... Liverpool - Manchester - Leeds - Kingston upon Hull ... Esbjerg - Copenhagen - Malmö - Helsingborg - Halmstad - Gothenburg - Örebro - Stockholm ... Tallinn - Narva - Saint Petersburg
• E30 - Cork - Waterford - Wexford - Rosslare ... Fishguard - Swansea - Cardiff - Newport - Bristol - London - Colchester - Ipswich - Felixstowe ... Hoek van Holland - The Hague - Gouda - Utrecht - Amersfoort - Oldenzaal - Osnabrück - Bad Oeynhausen - Hanover - Braunschweig - Magdeburg - Berlin - Świebodzin - Poznań - Warsaw - Brest - Minsk - Smolensk - Moscow - Ryazan - Penza - Samara - Ufa - Chelyabinsk - Kurgan - Ishim - Omsk
• E201 - Cork - Portlaoise

See also

• Irish National Secondary Roads
• Irish Regional Roads
• Irish Vehicle Registration Plates
• Northern Irish Vehicle Registration Plates
• List of Ireland-related topics
• Transportation in Ireland
• National Roads Authority
• Road speed limits in the Republic of Ireland

References

• S.I. No. 209/1994: Roads Act, 1993 (Declaration of National Roads) Order, 1994 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 49 of 1995 Roads Act, 1993 (Declaration of National Roads) Order, 1995 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 347 of 1996 Roads Act, 1993 (Declaration of National Roads) Order, 1996 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 26 of 2003 Roads Act, 1993 (Classification of National Roads) (Kilcock – Kinnegad Route) Order, 2003 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 249 of 2004 Roads Act, 1993 (Classification of National Roads) (Fermoy, Rathcormac and Watergrass Hill) Order, 2004 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 18 of 2004 Roads Act, 1993 (Classification of National Roads) (Gormanstown to Dundalk Route) Order, 2004 (revoked)
• Roads Act 1993 (Classification of National Roads) Order 2006 (PDF)- Department of Transport

External links

• Roads Service - Northern Ireland
• National Roads Authority (Republic of Ireland)
• Unofficial Northern Ireland road site
• Unofficial Proposed motorway plans for Belfast
• Unofficial Motorway Database
• Unofficial Pathetic Motorways
• A discussion on RTÉ Radio One's science show Quantum Leap about the quality of GPS mapping in Ireland is available here. The discussion starts 8mins 17sec into the show. It was aired on 18 Jan 2007 Requires Real player.